Well the long campaign is over and finally the new President of the United States has been decided. Barack Hussein Obama begins his term on 20th January 2009 and with it he brings many “firsts”.
The most obvious of these is the much talked about “First African American President”. A truly iconic achievement and a massive congratulations has to go to him for this. On top of this, we are hearing he is the first this and the first that. The one “first” that most people have not realised though is that he is the first president who is computer literate.
Yes, Mr Obama is a massive fan of the Blackberry and travels everywhere with it standing prominent on his belt. While he’s in the back of chauffeur driven cars and planes, he will be happily e-mailing friends and family as well as conducting important business.
He has also insisted on using a laptop in the White House. Something that no former President has done. In fact most that came before him had only sent the odd e-mail that was probably typed for them and sent by someone else.
There is however a spanner in the works for Barack as US laws state that all communication that the President has is to be recorded and this, on top of potential security issues with the technology in question, means that the new President may have all his toys taken away. He has already began saying goodbye to online acquaintances to protect, not only his, but their privacy too.
Well if someone took my phone and laptop away I wouldn’t be best pleased so I think it’s time to use a bit of that newly found power to re-write some of these rules Barack!!!